Diane Cleaners Wraps Up Annual Coat Drive Efforts

It's become something of a tradition each year when the weather gets chilly, Charlie Budavich said. 

For the past decade, Budavich's business, the longtime Moon Township laundry service Diane Cleaners, has cleaned and prepared used coats for donation through the West Hills Food Pantry. 

The Carnot Road pantry will deliver the jackets, offered up by members of the Moon Township community, to families and individuals in need. 

"It's an annual event and every year in early November, the pantry comes and picks them up," Budavich said. "And they have a huge job ahead of them, in distributing the coats." 

The pantry on Nov. 5 picked up this year's batch of donated coats—more than 700 of them collected over the course of the year, Budavich said. 

The cleanings are offered up for free—Budavich said the company's staff works the donated coats in with their regular workload, even stopping into the Beaver Grade Road shop in off-hours to catch-up on the donated jackets. 

"We'll try to fit some in at the end of the day, or just come in on a Sunday to get caught up," he said. "We just work them in." 

Founded by Budavich's family in 1964, Diane Cleaners began working alongside the pantry for the coat donation effort in 2001.

During the past decade, he estimates that the company has cleaned more than 10,000 coats free of charge for donation to individuals in need. 

He said this year area businesses have pitched in: A load of coats came from Centria on Beaver Grade Road. St. Andrew's Church organized a coat drive to contribute, he said. 

Budavich said the Diane Cleaners "never turns a coat away," but has limited storage space throughout the year. He said those seeking to donate gently used coats and jackets can drop off the items next fall for the 2013 drive.  

"It's just really grown over the years," Budavich said. "Our friends and customers and community have just been great."